Showing Results 1 - 8 of 8
Built in 1568, the Paradesi Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in India, as well as in the entire British Commonwealth. The land on which it was built was a gift from the Rajah of Cochin, Paraja, so…
These Torah finials from Cochin, India, were made around 1565. Elegant and simple, crafted from metal, their surfaces appear to be hammered, with one adorned with a Hebrew inscription. The earliest…
Amulets were crafted to protect pregnant women and newborn children from the powers of the evil Lilith, Adam’s mythical first wife. Mystical texts surround this image, written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and…
Built in the early fifteenth century and rebuilt in 1614 following a fire, the Chendamangalam Synagogue served members of the Malabari Jewish community, descendants of Cochin’s earliest Jews, who are…
Tombstone of a son of Ephraim Cohen, who was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Cochin, India. The first Jewish communities in Cochin were established as early as 1000 CE, and legends claim that Jews were…
Kneseth Eliyahoo was endowed in honor of Baghdad-born Eliyahoo (Elias) David Sassoon (1820–1880), son of textile magnate David Sassoon (1792–1864), by Elias’s sons. The synagogue was constructed in…
The Kadavumbagam Synagogue received its name (which means “by the side of the landing place”) from its peripheral location at the border of the Cochin Jewish neighborhood, where it served the Malabari…
These silver, crown-shaped Torah finials engraved with an okra floral motif are from the Paradesi Synagogue in Kerala, India. A Hebrew inscription (divided into four parts) reads: “The honorable R…
